I posted this and then the board went wonky and ate my post, so maybe that's my answer, but I shall attempt repost, nonetheless.

Is factionalization bad?

I understand that, ideally, the board is one big happy family. But, the reality is that we're a large group with varied interests. Historically, we shared a common interest in Buffy/Angel, but even that has changed. Over the years, we've morphed into more than just Buffy/Angel devotees.

Is there a concern that we won't be as cohesive with more threads? Or that new thread topics will bring in new people who don't share our original common interest?

I think it is fallacious to say that we're a cohesive group now. Also, right now not everyone here is a Buffy/Angel fan.

But it just seems to me that it would become increasingly difficult to enter a community that was driven solely by personalities than one that had on-topic discussion.

I think this is right, though I don't think there's any particular evidence that it's a problem currently. Just on the general point, it's much, much easier to join a community via a topic--okay, for me it's much easier--than via Natter.

I'm probably your outlier on that question, though; I'm a big fan of topic. I mean, I'm not subscribed to Bitches because the idea of trying to scale those walls intimidates me, and I've been posting here for... God, over two years now.

Without the topic-specific threads (or with fewer of them) it's more likely that I'll spend the bulk of my time in a particular subcommunity, and my linkages to people whose primary relationship is with another one will wither.

But honestly, that's already true. There are tons of people who mostly post in one (or three) threads. There are people in the Angel thread who I don't know at all.

I think what I'm trying to say is, I don't get the difference between someone who only posts in Angel and someone who only posts in Natter, in terms of the Buffistas As One Community notion.

Just on the general point, it's much, much easier to join a community via a topic--okay, for me it's much easier--than via Natter.

I agree with this general point a LOT.

Though I have no real answers/ideas/dictums for The Future Shape Of The Board.

I'm interested in your previous experience because I'm approaching this as an issue of board/community dynamics. What happens when it gets too big? What happens when all the satellite groups lose the center?

It's not really applicable. Either things were highly topic-focused, with massive police activity (racing boards), or they were personality-focused with a few key areas of specialized stuff like we have here. In the former case, the only real factions were racing board vs. breeding board. In the latter, we're talking pre-WWW, local stuff, and a busy board had maybe 80 active posters.

Without the topic-specific threads (or with fewer of them) it's more likely that I'll spend the bulk of my time in a particular subcommunity, and my linkages to people whose primary relationship is with another one will wither. There, I think, is where David's factions come in - not subcommunities so much as separate communities. (This, it should be noted, is not where we are, or where we're necessarily headed in the short-term, but I do think it's worth discussing as a potential long-term issue.)

Yes, this is exactly my point and Brenda's spicy brains can feel free to speak for me on this topic.

But honestly, that's already true. There are tons of people who mostly post in one (or three) threads. There are people in the Angel thread who I don't know at all.

I guess my feeling is that while this is already true to some extent, that if we don't foster more analysis/topic threads, that if we don't actively nurture a core of some kind that the drift will be to separate communities instead of subcommunities (as Brenda said). For me, that would be a negative.

Subcommunities -- inevitable. Separate communities? Problematic.

I don't get the difference between someone who only posts in Angel and someone who only posts in Natter, in terms of the Buffistas As One Community notion.

Me neither. The spoiler thread is full of people that I don't know, or people I do know with shared experiences I don't grok. Which, hey, no problem. It feels weird, because just a day or two ago, we numbered 200 and knew everyone by sight and had each other over for dinner all the time.

Except we didn't.

With almost 1500 registered users -- factionalisation has to happen. Or brains will explode.

The factionalization feels weird to me, but maybe with a board this size, that's how it has to be. That as we grow in size, we're more like Table Talk -- the whole umbrella of Table Talk -- rather than just, say, the Mothers Who Think subfolder.

But it's still weird that there are people who I don't recognize at all because they live in Minearverse, where I essentially don't go.

I think I still consider us small, when we're not.

Hmm. Still not a very useful contribution.

so we have threads to discuss and analyze books, movies, music, comics, atlantic canadians, and Tim. Is the problem that those non-Natter (yeah right) threads are too broad?